Rotation.org Writing Team

Jesus the Boy in the Temple

"O Taste and See" Food  Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activity 

Students will prepare various types of food, then place in specific locations on a large map of their church facility in preparation for a tasty" examination of "with what and how we are fed" by the various activities happening in places around our "Temple." They will get a "taste" of what attracted Jesus to want to be part of the Temple experience, and hopefully, see great benefits for imitating him in their own church. As a reflection, they will pack-a-snack for home and describe what some of today's foods tell them about Jesus and their church experience. (Optionally, the foods may be found in actual locations around the church to which students may travel.)

Scripture 

Passage: Luke 2:41-52

Key/Memory Verse: Luke 2:46-47   After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Additional Scripture for this Workshop

Psalm 34: 1, 8

1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

8 O taste and see that the Lord is good;
    happy are those who take refuge in him.

Objectives 

See the Bible Background for this set's complete list of objectives.

Particular Objectives for this Cooking Workshop

Preparation

• Read Bible Background, scripture and this lesson.
• Get a map of your church building and list of all your church activities.
• Assemble materials to construct a tabletop model or map of your church facility.
• Print off a copy of either or both of the temple pictures (attached to this lesson here at rotation.org).
• Gather the food items and preparation utensils.  (You may choose to either purchase a trail mix or buy ingredients and have the kids make it as part of the lesson - see Food Preparation.)  Place on tray(s) to easily bring to table with map at the appropriate time.
• Have water boiled for tea or milk warmed for hot chocolate.  Put in teapot.
• Print the suggested graphics found attached at the end of this lesson.

Materials List 

• Large sheet of paper for the tabletop map of church and Temple.
• Bowls, small paper plates, pot for tea/hot chocolate (to hold each food item), and small drinking cups.
• Plastic forks or spoons, one for each student at each food item.
• Plastic knives & forks for students to cut up breakfast meats.

   Suggested Food List

• Bagels with veggie spread (Sunday School)
• Donuts (fellowship)
• Comforting Tea or Hot Chocolate (pastor's office)
• Trail Mix (worship) (nuts, raisins, "M&M's", etc)
• Baby food (nursery)
• Coffee Beans (meetings, getting the business done) 
• Breakfast meat such as sausage or bacon (things that build spiritual muscles!)
• Pitcher of Water (baptism and sermons)

Lesson Plan

Overview

This lesson's main activity creates strong visual and tasty sensory connections between what happens in your church and what was happening in the Temple that Jesus worshiped in. You will be discussing "what happens" in various locations around the church, and then deciding what type of food best represents that ministry activity. After discussing and placing the items at each location, you will then lead the class back to each location for a taste-test conclusion.

Unlike a traditional lesson, a lot of your "teaching comments" and questions will happen as you lead students through this exercise. You will simplify or go deeper based on the age of your students and their grasp of the basic ideas. 

TableTop Drawing Suggestion:
Before placing the food on your map of your church, you will need to create the maps! If you feel comfortable doing so, you can draw and label a representation of the Temple Courts on your table top paper as you discuss the key locations, what Jesus might have seen or done there. Otherwise, you can pre-draw them, or enlarge pre-existing maps your church may have. Have the kids help you draw a map of your church building, and label its parts (what happens where, what's the important idea in this room, or ministry done in that room, etc.)  By drawing the church side-by-side with the Temple you will be creating both a reference map of your content and a strong visual connection between Jesus' experience and ours.

About the Food to be made and placed on the map:
The food items are a variety of ready-made foods you have brought, as well as, things the students can quickly assemble. This is why we're calling this a "food" workshop and not technically a "cooking" workshop .   Feel free to substitute your own food ideas, though you will definitely want to have a variety and not all desserts.

Food Preparation:
If you have the time, you can let them mix the worship trail mix before putting it out. This would give you extra time to ask about the "different ingredients" we have in worship. You can have them spread the veggie spread on the bagels, and cut up the pre-cooked breakfast meats. Then bring everything to the table and start your drawing.

The order of foods and what to say are described below, but feel free to adapt!

It's important that everyone taste the items at each location in order to create a strong sensory memory about the content there (multiple intelligence learning!). To keep the tasting sanitary, you will need new spoons/forks for each student to taste each item. As you taste, ask what words describe it, and relate those to the activity. For example, "fellowship" is "sweet"  and "worship trail mix" is a mixture of "salty and sweet." Then ask questions like, "what in worship is kind of salty and requires some chewing, and what's your favorite sweet in worship."

You don't have to have food for every location, just the key ones listed below.

Open

Welcome your students and explain how today's lesson will unfold.

View a picture of the Temple in Jerusalem where Jesus spent three days without his parents (attached to this lesson at rotation.org). 

Teacher: Hand out or refer to the Temple Courts map for identifying the various places in the Temple Jesus could have been in. Explain that this is what the Temple in Jerusalem looked like when Jesus visited it as a boy in today's story.  Note its key parts.

Now read together Luke 2:41-52

Ask these questions about the picture and passage.

What was going on around him as he was in the Temple?
What did he see, hear, smell?  (burnt offerings, incense, people, noises, animals, praying, singing)

What kept his attention there, so much that his parents left without him?

Where did he get food?
Where did he sleep

Where was he probably NOT allowed to go? (Jesus would not have been allowed into the Court of priests and definitely not the Holy of Holies -which is kind of odd since he was the Holy One). Do we have any rules like that?

Transitional Question: How is our church like the Temple?

Do: Gather around your table and have the students help you draw a map of your church. You may have printed maps to help them. Proportions aren't important, get the basics and then go around to each section labeling them, and asking "what do we do there?"   You are making a direct connection between Jesus' "church" and the kids.

"Dish and Dine"

Teacher: After you have completed your church map above, bring the tray full of all the food items (and utensils, etc.) you have brought and place off to the side of the map, and explain what's going to happen next. 

Invite them to help you prepare and dish up the foods.

Do:  If you have the time, you can let them mix the worship trail mix ingredients before putting it out. This would give you extra time to ask about the "different ingredients" we have in worship.  Have students spread the veggie spread on the bagels, and cut up the pre-cooked breakfast meats.

Teacher: After all the foods are ready, you move certain types of food to the labeled locations and ask follow-up questions about each food and location (see list of items and related comments below).  

Do:  You will present these foods one at a time, asking "where do you think this one should go?" If their answer doesn't match yours, that's okay. Just say, "well, when I was bringing this item, I was thinking about...."  And then place it where you need it to go to make your point.  After all the items are placed, go back to each one with a fork or whatever, and serve them up, making additional comments as you do.

Start with donuts and baby food because those are fun and easy to figure out what they represent.

Food Items, Comments and Questions to Interject as you place food items on the map and then go around tasting them:

Donuts (Fellowship):  Everybody loves them, but what would happen if church were just a fun place to meet friends?   Do you think Jesus spent any time in fellowship playing with other young kids and relatives during Passover?  Can church fun compete with something like Disney fun. 

Baby Food (Nursery):  Why are little kids so important to the church? God chose to enter the world as one of them!  And Jesus said their "child-like" behavior was blessed. But...are we supposed to stay babies in our faith?  How does our "food" change as we grow older in our church?

Trail Mix (Worship):  What in worship is like your least favorite/favorite part of the trail mix. Which things in worship are "salty" and "sweet"?  Some people like the red M&Ms, while others like the blue, how is that like things in our worship service?  What would worship be like if it had only things YOU liked?  Ever tasted something you didn't know was going to be good?

Bagels with Veggie Spread (Sunday School):  What do we study in Sunday School that Jesus said was like bread? (God's Word).  Why bagels with vegetable cream cheese, and not donuts, what does that say about what we do here?   How are both bagels and Sunday School lessons something for us to "chew" on?  How is learning Bible stories like "eating your vegetables"?  (Garlic flavor will linger, which can remind us that a good lesson is like garlic, God's Word will linger in your heart.)

Tea/Hot Chocolate (Pastor's Office):  One of the pastor's roles is to help people in times of trouble. What kind of troubles do people have?  (relationships, health, death)   How does having a cup of warm tea or hot chocolate make you feel?

Coffee Beans (Meetings):  Let's call "meeting coffee" the "fuel" for doing the business and meetings of our church. Where/who/what business or meetings need to take place in the church? Do you think you would be welcome in those meeting? (you would!) If you chew a coffee bean, it's gritty.  What work is "gritty" in our church? (not pleasant but needs done by faithful volunteers)

Breakfast Meat (Bible Study and anything that helps build spiritual muscles):  What's the meat of our faith and where do we get it in our Temple?  What did Jesus do in the Temple that was like real meat for his soul?   According to Luke, what activity did Jesus really seem to "sink his teeth into?"

Cool Water (Baptism - Sermons: cleansing, cool and hydration stations for those running in God's marathon): Everyone needs water to live, where is our "living/reviving water" represented in our church? Where and how are you "refreshed" in our church?

Additional questions if time:

What are the three top activities in the church based on the amount of space we give them?

What important place in our church is the most under-rated or goes unnoticed?

If you were upset and in trouble, what place in the church would help you the most?

If Jesus came to our church where would he go to ask questions?

And what questions do you think he might have?

A Pack-a-Snack Reflection

Say: Like Jesus, we can't stay in the Temple all the time. God calls us out into the world. So we're going to pack a 'snack pack' that will remind us of today's lesson.

Give each student a brown bag and have them write on it either, "Food for the Journey, Food for Thought"  or "O Taste and See that the Lord is Good." 

Now invite them to pick three things for their 'Snack bag', telling them that after they have collected it, you will call upon them to explain what one of the items in their bag means with regard to today's lesson.

As they write and pack, continue offering suggestions, such as, "when we leave church every Sunday, what food should we take with us to share with the world?"

Quote Psalm 38 referenced at the top of this lesson... "his praise will be in my mouth... taste and see that the Lord is Good." 

Pray over the bags thanking God for giving us this nourishing place to learn in just like Jesus learned in the Temple. Pray that each of us learns to find tasty good things here at church, and leaves ready to share what we have been given, in Jesus' name.

 
Additional Suggestions 

For younger students, have them illustrate on your map what goes in various locations on the church map. 

Optionally, prepare and distribute the various foods to real locations around the church for a "traveling discussion."

Written by  Neil MacQueen based on ideas from member Stacey Tate.

Copyright ©  Rotation.org Inc. Printed from https://www.rotation.org
Illustration used with permission from Lloyd Thomas. Other images in public domain.

Three Attachments:  Click to enlarge., Right click to select "SAVE AS" to your computer.

Sample church map. Illustration of the Temple Courts. Photo of Model of Temple in the time of Jesus.

For the opening discussion, a photo of a model of the Temple that Jesus worshiped in.

Illustration of Temple Courts/Areas.